Eurydice and the Snake
by FS
Summary: A (hopefully short) series of even shorter stories for Miyano Shiho and Kudo Shinichi, in their original forms as well as their shrunk forms, dedicated to friends who have inspired them...
1. Eurydice and the Snake

_Disclaimer:_ I wish _Detective Conan_ belonged to me.

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**_Eurydice and the Snake_**

_(mini-fics under 500 words for the CoAi Discord server)_

_by FS _

x.

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**I. Eurydice and the Snake**

_(Dedicated to Muphrid, because we've talked about Cyrano so often. Also, thanks for watching me jump into the abysses of Destiny 2 with angelic patience, only asking, _Why don't you take the stairs?…_)_

x.

School plays, like the students who write and perform them, only grow weirder and crazier with every passing year. She blames it on teenage hormones; he blames it on social media. It doesn't matter what has caused this, but there ought to be a limit? Still, even if there must be boundaries to human foolishness, their theatre-obsessed classmates haven't discovered it yet.

The year before last year their class performed _Romeo and Juliet_, a parody of Shakespeare's play. She was Romeo and Ayumi-chan Juliet. As ridiculous as her Romeo costume was (she can't sew to save her life), stabbing Kudo-kun, who played Tybalt, with a silver-painted wooden stick was fun!

Last year—emboldened by the unanticipated success of the previous year—they tackled an abridged Japanese version of _Cyrano de Bergerac_. Ayumi-chan was Roxanne and she was Christian, Roxanne's witless but handsome beau. Cyrano, the main role, had gone to Kudo-kun out of all people. He clumsily poked Cyrano's giant cardboard nose into her ear as they were loitering under the tiny balcony, whispering heartfelt love declarations to Ayumi-chan, who was languishing above. Since this nose-in-ear incident happened just when "Christian" was supposed to cry out that "he" desired a kiss and Ai's cry couldn't mask her shock and anguish, the audience shook with laughter.

This year it's _Orpheus and Eurydice_, again an abridged version. She is Eurydice, Orpheus' hapless bride, who will be bitten by a poisonous snake on her wedding day. Tsuburaya-kun has valiantly fought for (and conquered) the role of Orpheus in the hope of receiving a kiss. She doesn't know whether there will be a kiss in the play yet, she tells Kudo-kun. Maybe she should be generous and give Tsuburaya-kun a fond memory to dwell upon?

"Don't even think about it!" he warns her as he is writhing on the floor in his green serpent costume. "Mitsuhiko is serious about you! It's not just a crush for him."

"So what do I get for not kissing him?"

"A kiss from me," he offers, and bites her on her toe tip.

x.

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_A/N_: I really didn't want to write ficlets under 500 words (even 1000 words aren't enough for me)… but then this happened since I can't stand seeing incomplete tags. The only two remaining prompts on the CoAi server were tiptoes (adoration) and belly (going back). It's not hard to guess which prompt this drabble was for. XD


	2. Unreadable

_Disclaimer:_ I wish _Detective Conan_ belonged to me.

* * *

**_Eurydice and the Snake_**

_(mini-fics under 500 words for the CoAi Discord server)_

_by FS _

x.

* * *

**II. Unreadable**

_(Dedicated to Rae (Astarael00), who has the worst handwriting ever but claims that mine is illegible.)_

x.

Normal couples kiss.

Since he and she haven't kissed (yet?), they're either not normal, not a couple, or not a normal couple (yet).

Or maybe they just belong to the small percentage of normal couples who haven't kissed for a number of legitimate reasons.

One of these reasons is the seasonal flu, which has been especially hard on their compromised immune system. It can no longer be ignored that APTX4869 and its temporary antidotes have taken a toil on their bodies now that they fall ill every time the flu hits. After freezing in the cold outside or indulging in the warmth inside, either without a vaccine or from the vaccine itself: every time the flu season strikes, they will be missing sleep, losing weight, fighting for breath, oscillating between shivering and burning up—barely surviving on ginger tea and porridge and the occasional tea spoon of honey.

Not functioning well enough to breathe freely and feeling too exhausted to speak also means neither having the energy nor the desire to kiss. After weeks of insomnia, she can't even remember how they got together in the first place… It must have happened when they spontaneously held hands on the way home. And they might have talked about sharing their future during a long night curled up on their ancient sofa although she isn't sure about that detail anymore, having fallen asleep in the middle of his speech. He must have promised something, but she is positive that he has forgotten it as well—another precious memory lost although many others can be made.

He has scribbled something on a note for her, on which he must have asked her for something, but she can't read it. His handwriting has become abysmal in the course of time. He has the gall to claim her handwriting is worse—a testimony to his lack of self-awareness.

He is sleeping right now—even smiling in his sleep—and she takes care to move as little as possible so as not to rouse him from his dreams. Through the closed bedroom door, she can hear the cleaning robot hum her favourite tune while scrubbing the floors. The curtains on the walls have also changed colours, replacing the sunset motif with the night-sky motif as his breathing grows heavier.

It occurs to her that the two of them go back for a long time—so long that it seems to have started at the beginning of the world—and that they will be together forever unless they die. And the fact that this doesn't feel like a burden at all means something more profound than her sleep-deprived mind can comprehend. To commemorate the significance of this moment, she allows herself to turn her head to press a kiss on his belly she is lying on…

To her heartache, he stirs—but he only chuckles and murmurs, "You _can _read it, after all!" before continuing to sleep, unaware that she hasn't been able to decipher it.

x.

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_A/N_: After the first fic, which was light and sweet, it's time for something darker. Thanks to Rae for being the inspiration of this fic. I've only used half of his plunny ("Person A drops something illegible. Person B returns it anyway"), but that's how inspiration works. ;)

The fic, including its title, is exactly 500 words long. I've barely made it this time.


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